Today I noticed a flower stalk and bud emerging from the centre of my rhubarb, I say noticed as if I were surprised to see it there, but to be honest I wasn’t. I found out that rhubarb could flower by studying gardening books, I looked into the possibility because I noticed something unusual about my rhubarb way back in January, just as it emerged through the soil. Along with the usual buds pushing through was a much larger pale green bud, something  I had never seen before.

Anyway, I had been keeping a close eye on the suspicious bud but it slipped my mind just recently and I sort of lost track of it amongst the huge leaves – until today. I knew from reading about rhubarb flowers that I should remove any flower stalks as soon as they’re noticed, flowers that are allowed to set seed could potentially weaken the plant and it may never fully recover. I’ve also read that lack of water at a certain point of development could be the reason why rhubarb decides to flower, but I do not believe this to be the case with mine. Any ideas?

I guess it decided it was going to flower this year, come what may, so off with its flower head and onto the compost heap it went. Shame, it looked so pretty too.